A look at the Fitzgerald file

By announcing his candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Oct. 11, 2011, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald served formal notice that he will challenge two better-known Republicans who have run multiple times for statewide office in Wisconsin.

The Horicon Republican was first elected to the Assembly in 2000. Since January 2011, he and his brother, Scott Fitzgerald, the state Senate majority leader, have led the Wisconsin Legislature.

Jeff Fitzgerald is running in the 2012 election for the Senate seat held by Democrat Herb Kohl, who is not seeking re-election.

So far, PolitiFact Wisconsin has rated four statements by Jeff Fitzgerald. He earned a:

Mostly False for saying former Gov. Jim Doyle and other Democrats “rushed through a budget-repair bill and billions in tax increases and held no public hearings.”

Mostly False for saying 15,000 IRS employees have to be added “to administer ‘Obamacare.’”

True for saying state legislators would have to give up the same amount of pay as other state employees under a budget-repair bill.

Pants on Fire for claiming that the 2011-2013 state budget contains no fee increases.

We’ve also put other candidates for Kohl’s seat to the Truth-O-Meter test. They include U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Republicans Mark Neumann and Tommy Thompson.